The band that changed Billy Bob Thornton’s life: “They became and still are my favourite”
The average person will know Billy Bob Thornton through his movies. Some will know him simply through his relationship with Angelina Jolie and that now-infamous MTV interview clip of them both on the red carpet. But few, I’d imagine, would ever recognise Thornton through his music, as much as he might like to change that.
The music exploits did come first, though. While trying to get his acting career off the ground before scoring any roles, Thornton was already playing drums in a band. Since scoring the success he was after, his love for music never disappeared or dropped away. Alongside starring in movies, and even when he moved to writing and directing them, Thornton has always had some musical side project going on.
He’s had a strange time with that fact, though. Despite working in music first, the second he found success as an actor, it seemed as though the world wanted to box him in. “The prejudice doesn’t go in the opposite direction. If a musician wants to be in a movie, people don’t say anything about it,” he complained once, adding, “It’s some kind of deal where people say, ‘you don’t get to be a rock star too.’”
But Thornton was already a rock star. He started out as a drummer, playing in bands with people like Billy Gibbons, who would go on to find his own major musical success in ZZ Top. Their band, Tres Hombres, released a record in 1983, a few years before Thornton was ever seen on a screen.
Eventually, he stepped up to the mic. As well as writing scripts, he’s always been writing songs and genuinely would count ‘singer-songwriter’ in the main headline of his job title, placing it equal alongside his acting and film work. Thornton then released his debut solo album in 2001 and has shared several others since, with the latest, Beautiful Door, taking a country turn in 2007. He’s still going today, and in 2025, his band, The Boxmasters, are supporting The Who on their farewell shows and have a string of other gigs and festival slots.
His work, both as a solo artist and with The Boxmasters, toes the line between rock, blues and country, all being inspired by the legends of the ‘60s and ‘70s that clearly influence Thornton’s entire artistic life.
In particular, there’s one band that Thornton found early and has been inspired by ever since. “Essentially, I grew up with a really wide musical taste, and then of course came The Allman Brothers, and that changed my life,” he said. That’s the origin story, and everyone must have one. Paul McCartney’s was hearing Elvis for the first time. Dave Grohl’s was hearing Jimmy Page play. Thornton’s was right here when he first discovered the classic ‘70s band.
The recipe is familiar given Thornton’s music. The group merged bits of rock, country, and blues, even with a little bit of jazz in there. It’s precisely the kind of classic rock star material that you’d imagine a man like Thornton enjoying, the kind of music to listen to while you get tattooed or ride a motorbike down the highway. And seemingly, the moment the figure heard it, his fate felt locked in as he said, “They became and still are my favorite band of all time.”
